The present disclosure relates generally to a mobile device configured to enable three-dimensional localization and mapping, and more specifically, to a mobile device configured to autonomously enable simultaneous localization and mapping.
For robotic navigation and interaction with real-world environments, it is important to have an accurate map of an environment in which a robot is traveling, as well as accurate position and orientation information of the robot relative to the environment. Conventional systems require external hardware, such as fixed-position laser trackers, motion capture cameras, or markers placed on a surface in order to acquire three-dimensional scan data. Conventional systems cannot register movement of a scanning unit into a three-dimensional common global reference frame without an external source of position and orientation data for the scanner. Further, in order to perform self-localization or object scanning in an unprepared environment, conventional systems require an external tracking system, which can be very expensive and time consuming to set up, or require a laborious task of placing dozens of reflective markers on the surfaces of all of the objects being scanned.